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Welcome to the archives of Peacebuilding Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on September 1, 2018, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on global peace and security. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors and contributors.
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A chronicle of one organization’s determination to bring hope and healing to Syrian refugees through innovative education.
The so-called Islamic State may be getting most of the headlines. But there’s another rebel group on the move in Syria, one that works with the US-backed Free Syrian Army, that is also cause for concern.
‘Syrians are using smugglers because they don’t have any other avenues to cross the Mediterranean,” Dawn Chatty tells Syria Deeply.
Bicycles are becoming an increasingly valuable commodity.
Mia Bloom spoke with Syria Deeply about ISIS’ recruitment of women and the reality of their lives in Syria and Iraq.
“The bottom line is that neither side is really capable of a full military victory in this war unless the other sides’ backers capitulate and cut support to their Syrian allies, which is highly unlikely.”.
Syria Deeply spoke with displaced Assyrian families who fled to Beirut after Jabhat al Nusra and ISIS arrived in their hometown of al-Hasakah. Many of them have relatives presently held hostage by ISIS.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon OBE
In my opinion, the only hope of stopping the chemical attacks in Syria is some sort of No Fly Zone (NFZ), but it has to be limited, a leading chemicals weapons expert says.
Through alliances with certain groups, acquisitions and defeat of others, Nusra aims to strengthen its footprint and widen its influence in the north, and present itself as the primary force fighting the Assad regime on the ground, a leading analyst tells Syria Deeply.
Humanitarian needs have increased by nearly a third compared with 2013. More than 11.6 million people are now in urgent need of clean water and nearly 10 million people do not have enough to eat.
When asked what would help them the most, almost without exception every nurse or physician said: “Stop the bombing.”.
Harakat Hazzm, a US-armed group vetted by the CIA for training, has fallen to an Al Qaeda affiliate that is targeting moderate rebels.
“Turkey is now realizing that it should update its security policy with the West in regards to the ISIS threat.”.
The Mulham Volunteer Team has become a household name in Jordan and Syria for its almost quixotic battle to bring back rare smiles to young refugees.
The Syrian Kurds’ willingness to sacrifice won them allies in the battle for Kobane. But obstacles remain to rebuild the city and translate military into political gains.
“Russia is going to try to score diplomatic points by playing host to these talks … it is basically trying to insert itself in every way it can in all of the U.S. engagements in the region.”.
“It will be very difficult to stop the Islamic State from using chemical weapons like chlorine … they are proliferating the fear factor.”.
“Without external allies, the balance of power would have been very different in Syria today. ”.
By September, Abu Mahmoud said the family faced an ultimatum. They could either accept a new life in Raqqa under the banner of ISIS, he said, or they could flee.
There is a belief that if you can move beyond Assad and those immediately around him, you would be able to starve the oxygen that ISIS and other extremists live off of.
“There are a lot of people involved in the social media campaign who are cheerleaders of ISIS who are not formally associated with ISIS and who aren’t necessarily based in Iraq and Syria.”.
‘Studies show that common heritage helps foster compatibility between communities in the postwar phase’.
‘Iraq is home to some of the most holy sites in Shia Islam and if ISIS were to come close to them, Iran would be obligated to defend those sites’.
‘When people feel confused about the world and the society they live in, when they feel they need a more secure environment that can help them navigate troubled social conditions, you often see an upsurge of religious fundamentalism’.
‘The Assad regime will always have an authoritarian tendency and willingness to put it to force, and arrest any politicians that disagree with its point of view’.
‘It may start to look more attractive for some to deal with the Assad regime, because the U.S. and its allies are not going to deal with Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State directly’.
‘The avoidance of the scenario in Iraq, probably more than anything else, explains U.S. policy in the past three and half years’.
“Any time you mix military action with the protection of civilians, you put them in danger. The Assad regime could argue that they are a military target and a threat to the regime.”.
Sarah Case of the International Rescue Committee explains why the need for donor countries to support such refugee host countries as Lebanon and Jordan, who are struggling to support Syrian refugees, is urgent.
Theodore Bell, analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, spoke to Syria Deeply about the how the emergence of a stronger, unified opposition in the south might threaten the regime in Damascus.
Activists point to increased Syrian airstrikes against the opposition since the US-led campaign began. But rebel groups are also fighting Islamic State, analysts note.
‘If these are the champions of the Sunni-Arab cause in Syria, an al-Qaida offshoot, then there is reason to be worried’.
David Butter, a Middle East energy analyst and associate fellow at Chatham House, spoke to Syria Deeply about ISIS oil and what it means for Syria at large.
Amal Leila
‘I wish that the urgency that moved the U.S. and other governments to bomb ISIS was matched by an urgency to save the lives of civilians’.
Hassan Hassan gave us his take on what needs to be done to effectively root out ISIS in Syria.
As Syrian refugees and their Jordanian hosts struggle to make ends meet in a stressed economy, tensions are boiling over into their kids’ worlds.
Hamish de Bretton Gordon OBE, a chemical weapons expert focusing on the Syrian crisis and founder of London-based SecureBio, weighs in on what remains of the chemical stockpile in Syria and where authorities stand in securing them.
With Jordan limiting job opportunities and the UN reducing food aid, even middle-class refugees from war-torn Syria are asking how, and where, they can survive.
Mutlu Civiroglu, an analyst specializing in Syria and Turkey, spoke to us about the strategic dimension of the Kurdish fight, the rise of the YPG, and the complex role for Turkey in mix.
The battle for the ethnic-Kurdish city of Kobane on the Turkish-Syria border could see Iraqi Kurds join the fray in greater numbers after Turkey’s decision, a reversal of its previous policy.
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